Strolling on the East River, 1867
Today, the East Coast is being pummeled by what meterologists are referring to as a “bomb cyclone,” a term which is equal parts concerning and confusing. A “bomb cyclone” is simply a rapidly intensifying low pressure front, which is now causing blizzard conditions across much of the East coast from Delaware to Maine.
Even before the “bomb cyclone” the conditions have been brutally cold. As pointed out by an article in The Atlantic, recent temperatures in parts of the Northeast have been colder than temperatures on Mars.
Yet, as frigid as the recent cold snap has been, it has been a lot worst in the past. Even the recent past. In 2015, ferry traffic was interrupted by heavy ice in New York’s East River and sections of the Hudson River partially froze over. And that is nothing compared to conditions in the late 18th and 19th centuries. An update on a post from January 2014:
Sanctions do not mean much if they are not enforced. The UN has been imposing increasingly stricter limitations on the importation of crude and refined oil to North Korea. Still, oil has been getting through. In the past few days, South Korea has seized two tankers; the 
Back in June, 
Four years ago, the yacht racing world was caught aback when 
It is brutally cold on the Northeast coast of the US right now. Temperatures are hovering around the 20s F (in negative digits measured when in Celcius) from Virgina to the Canadian border. It is so cold there are reports of sharks freezing. Two thresher sharks were found dead on a Cape Cod beach, believed disabled by cold shock, which led to their stranding and death. 
This year’s 
We hope that everyone is having a most merry Christmas. Here is a repost from 2014 of a poem by 
After being lost for 103 years, the wreck of Australia’s first submarine, 
Happy